TEHRAN(Bazaar) –Marc Finaud, Head of Arms Proliferation at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), says the current context is not favorable to a resumption of negotiations at an early date.
He adds that “However, to make it possible, it is important that each party remains prepared and abstains from escalatory gestures.”
Following is the full text of interview:
Q: The International Atomic Energy Agency team is going to travel to Iran with the aim of dealing with the remaining safeguards issues. What is your assessment of this trip?
A: This is consistent with the cooperative approach needed to solve this issue definitively. The IAEA is only exercising its mandate based on its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement and Additional Protocol with Iran.
Q: Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Mohammad Eslami has said that we hope that we can make effective progress with the agency team in order to remove the obstacles and ambiguities and that a step forward will be taken. What is your assessment of Eslami's words?
A: This is a good sign that Iran is willing to solve this issue by answering all the questions raised by the IAEA, which is the only way to close this file.
Q: A European diplomat told Al-Monitor reporter that this trip is good in principle, but Westerners do not expect any progress from it. If we evaluate this comment correctly, what does the sending of this team by the agency mean?
A: As the saying goes, you don't need to hope in order to act nor to succeed in order to persevere. Even if the chances of success are limited by the current context of tensions and past mistrust, it is in everyone's interest to find a mutually satisfactory solution.
Q: What is your assessment of the future of the negotiations and how probable do you consider the start of the negotiations at the moment?
A: Of course, the current context is not favorable to a resumption of negotiations at an early date. However, to make it possible, it is important that each party remains prepared and abstains from escalatory gestures.
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